A Systematic Approach for the Design, Fabrication, and Testing of Microstrip Antennas Using Inkjet Printing Technology

The authors present a systematic approach for producing microstrip antennas using the state-of-the-art-inkjet printing technique. An initial antenna design based on the conventional square patch geometry is adopted as a benchmark to characterize the entire approach; the procedure then could be generalized to different antenna geometries and feeding techniques. For validation purposes, the antenna is designed and simulated using two different 3D full-wave electromagnetic simulation tools: a soft's High Frequency Structure Simulator (HFSS), which is based on the Finite Element Method (FEM), and CST microwave studio, which is based on the Finite Integration Technique (FIT).